Air France-KLM in talks with 2-3 serious bidders interested in Cityjet

16APR2013

Cityjet (WX, Dublin International (DUB)) has received "very positive feedback" from the market as parent Air France-KLM is currently in negotiations with "two or three" interested bidders regarding the sell off of its Irish subsidiary. According to a report by the Irish Times, two of the bidders have been identified as ASL Aviation Group and Intro Aviation. ASL controls cargo operator Air Contractors (AG, Dublin International (DUB)), French cargo and charter airline Europe Airpost (5O, Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)) and South African cargo and ACMI specialist Safair (FA, Johannesburg Oliver Reginald Tambo International (JNB)). Intro Aviation owns a majority stake in Austrian regional carrier InterSky (3L, Friedrichshafen Bodensee (FDH)) and is also said to be one of the bidders for a stake in Adria Airways (JP, Ljubljana Joze Pucnik (LJU)). Cityjet CEO Christine Ourmières said "she is impressed with the calibre" of bidders who have so far submitted proposals, all of whom have grand long-term plans for the company. At present, CityJet operates an ageing fleet of nineteen ARJ-85s, twelve Fokker 50s wet-leased from VLM (VG, Antwerp Deurne (ANR)) and two Do328-100s wet-leased from Suckling Airways (CB, Cambridge (CBG)) on routes on behalf of Air France (AF, Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)) and on an own network from London City (LCY), though Ms Ourmières has pointed out that any future fleet and route network renewal plans would depend entirely on the airline's new owner. Air France-KLM is expected to issue an announcement on the future home of Cityjet this summer.
CH-AVIATION